Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc. has released a new artificial intelligence (AI) reasoning model that it says rivals — and even surpasses — the performance of DeepSeek’s controversial model at a fraction of the cost.
The latest (seemingly weekly) entrants in the AI speed race are two new AI models, including a new reasoning-focused model that according to Baidu is capable of AI image generation, code interpretation, web page reading and complex calculations at half the cost of DeepSeek’s R1.
“ERNIE X1 delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price,” Baidu said of its high-end model. The X1 has “stronger understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution capabilities,” making it the first deep thinking model that uses tools autonomously, Baidu said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Baidu boasts its latest foundation model, ERNIE 4.5, has “excellent multimodal understanding ability. It has more advanced language ability, and its understanding, generation, logic, and memory abilities are comprehensively improved,” the company said, adding that the model has “high EQ” and can easily identify and understand network memes and satirical cartoons.
The new models mark a new twist in the competition among Chinese AI companies to gain mind and market share.
Though Baidu gained notoriety as one of China’s first tech giants to launch a ChatGPT-like chatbot with performance comparable to OpenAI’s GPT-4, the company — best known for its internet services — has struggled to gain widespread adoption of the ERNIE large language model (LLM).
Baidu has toiled in the shadow of DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup whose high-performance open-source LLM boasted significantly lower development costs than industry leaders like OpenAI, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Anthropic, and others.
DeepSeek set off widespread panic among AI giants in China and the U.S., but analysts have since called into question the actual cost of DeepSeek’s R1 model while U.S. government agencies and the governments of Italy, Ireland, South Korea and Australia have banned R1 because of security concerns.
Baidu also faces intensifying competition from the likes of China’s Alibaba, which is spending billions of dollars on its AI development efforts and unveiled a more powerful AI agent last week.
Yet another AI chatbot tool from China, called Manus AU, has been developed and introduced by startup Butterfly Effect. That company claims it is the world’s first fully autonomous AI agent, though experts who have tested it so far are highly skeptical of its reputed abilities.
